This Story Is Featured in the Spring/Summer Issue of Wilmington College's Magazine, The LINK
Mikaela Prescott recalls the life-changing impact of Box 255 when she engaged in the task of checking the inventory of the Meriam R. Hare Quaker Heritage Center's (QRC) collection of artifacts. The seemingly random event affirmed her career interest in public history, museums and archives.
PICTURED: Mikaela Prescott revisits Box 255 containing the 200-year-old land surveying instrument that made such an impression upon her, fueling her interest in how historic artifacts can speak through the generations.
Inside the box — one of scores she inspected during a campus job — was a heavy wooden box with a green velvet-lined interior containing a 200-year-old land surveying instrument that had been given to a 1883 Wilmington College graduate and ended up in WC's collection of artifacts.
"There was an instant 'click.' I had this immediate attraction. I was holding this object that was so cool and so old. You can tell it's been well used and cared for," said the 2021 history graduate from Dublin, Ohio. "I thought, 'There's got to be more of a story to this.' Sign me up. I'm in this for the long haul!"
Prescott's research revealed the instrument was manufactured in 1820 by Young & Sons Engineering and Survey Instruments of Philadelphia and was used in survey work conducted under the Land Ordinance of 1785. A precursor to the better-known Northwest Ordinance (1787), which provided a path toward statehood for six western Great Lakes states, this was the federal plan for surveying what was known as the Ohio Country, the land mass north and west of the Ohio River.
"This land surveyor was the thing I clung to," Prescott said. "We miss how much we can connect with history. It's extremely hard not to care about something when it's actually in your hands rather on the page of a book."
Prescott, a 2021 graduate, has been accepted to attend graduate school at the University of Oklahoma, where she will engage in Native American studies as her path for ultimately working with museum collections and inventory. A caveat to her career plans is she possesses a compelling interest in indigenous peoples having a voice in where and how artifacts associated with their historic cultures are displayed.
"I'm a huge believer in repatriation — it's changing the museum industry, which has been based on the dominance of the white academic," she said. "It's time we start mending bridges that have been burned."
Prescott said the presentation of a story involving Native Americans is often "slanted and obtuse" due to it being passed down strictly by the "colonizing force of European settlers, who openly viewed indigenous people as other, less than and subhuman."
She favors the movement to "decolonize" public history and include previously unheard voices and perspectives which, in turn, creates a more accurate reflection of actual history. Indeed, repatriation of artifacts is an act that works hand-in-hand with decolonization.
"The process by which we allow indigenous voices to speak as to the cultural relevance of objects and collections is an aid in returning items to where and whom they belong," she added. "So many sacred and cultural artifacts have been stolen through warfare, genocide and looting, and they sit behind glass, serving at best as a precautionary tale."
Prescott witnessed firsthand the power of repatriation when she was invited to join a Wilmington College contingent that, in 2019, returned an atomic bombed cross to a Japanese church. The artifact had been part of the Peace Resource Center (PRC) collection at the College for some 35 years. Indeed, PRC director Dr. Tanya Maus claims Prescott was part of the motivation for repatriating the Urakami Cross to Nagasaki.
"Mikaela is very passionate about returning artifacts taken from Native American communities," Maus said. "I invited her to join us because she had deeply influenced my decision to repatriate the Urakami Cross. After having several conversations with her about this issue in the Native American context, I began to see the Urakami Cross in a new way and increasingly felt the PRC had an obligation to return it."
Maus recalled that, once Prescott was on the trip, "I was deeply moved by her care and thoughtfulness toward the Japanese people and her desire to immerse herself in the experience fully and wholly."
Prescott credits Maus with making her "an extremist" for repatriation.
"Humans by nature can tie so much significance in the material and tangible," Prescott said. "The difference therein lies that the value that we as educators, museums and historians place upon these objects is in a material good sense. We see an item as an item — we do not see the pain, suffering, lifelines, culture, mythology, religion and family names which are so deeply interwoven within.
"This is why we must hold ourselves accountable, take a step down and a step back, and allow marginalized minority voices to rise up," she added. "There will never be a world in which a perfect symbiosis is achieved, but we can certainly work together toward a future where bridges previously burned are mended."
Prescott revealed her transformational WC experience that began when she left a campus visit at a large university "overwhelmed and scared."
Originally interested in pursuing equine business management, she had a taste of attending both small and large high schools and, upon visiting the College, "I decided I'd much rather be a big fish in a small pond than a number in a crowd," she said. "I remember the conversation I had with my parents in the car after visiting Wilmington. My dad said, 'I can see you fitting in here.' It was a weight off my shoulders with my dad approving of a college I liked.
"I realized I thrive in an environment where everybody knows know I am."
One of the first to recognize Prescott as a person was Dr. Keith Orejel, assistant professor of history, who was impressed with her knowledge of the Salem Witch Trials (1692-93) discussed in his Freshman Global Issues course.
"It was his and my first class at WC," Prescott recalled, noting he later created an independent study course for her focused upon Native American history. "He told me to think about being a history major. In fact, he wouldn't leave me alone until I became a history major. I'm really glad he did because it's been great!"
A public history course her sophomore year with adjunct faculty member Rachel Ellison got her interested in museums and archives. Then she met Maus, who gave her numerous opportunities in hands-on learning, from conducting an inventory of the Quaker collection to helping create the QHC Gallery's World War I and Gifts of Peace exhibits.
"Tanya and I share a common energy," Prescott said. "She afforded me every opportunity — I hit a stride with those as something I really cared about. I attribute so much of my personal success to her giving me those opportunities."
Finally, there was Dr. Anne Daniels, assistant professor of history, who fostered her interest in Native American cultures, encouraged her to apply to Oklahoma's program and assisted Prescott in overcoming what she described as her "imposter syndrome," chronic feelings of self-doubt. The professor also played a role in her obtaining a senior-year internship with the Clinton County History Center.
"Anne helped me realize I'm allowed to be ambitious and that I can do (anything)," she said. "It started with Keith, then Tanya and Anne. They've encouraged me to be more. I wouldn't be graduating with a Wilmington College degree and going to graduate school at Oklahoma without these people encouraging me to make my own strides."
Prescott learned that, "unless you're already exceptional," you wouldn't get a second look by a big school, while Wilmington College excels at giving students the opportunity to become exceptional.
"Here, your profs take an interest in you as a person," she said. "They want to see you grow and be on the right path for success."
